30 September 2014

Why write an outline?Wouldn’t it be easier to just start writing
and see where your imagination takes you?After all, you’ve had this idea swimming around in your head for a long
time and you’re eager to get started.However,
before you do, can you answer these 6 questions?:-

1.Who is your main character?

2.What is your main character’s
goal?

3.What is stopping your main
character from achieving that goal?

4.What time and place is your
story set?

5.What genre is your story?Mystery, Romance, Comedy, Thriller etc.

6.Are you going to have one
viewpoint character or more than one?

Whether you plan to be an outliner or write
by the seat of your pants, having answers to the above questions is the place
to start.

What
are the benefits of making an outline?

·An outline is a roadmap for you
to follow.This doesn’t mean it can’t be
flexible.

·It avoids spending time writing
scenes that do not further the plot or they come to a dead-end.

·Enables you to plan what
pitfalls your protagonist is to come across.

·It enables you to set up the
end of your story.In turn, you can write
scenes that lead to this end.

·Sub-plots can be entwined
throughout the story along with a few red herrings.

·Lessons the probability that
you will have to do a lot of rewriting.

I have been both an Outliner and a Pantser,
and have found that having some kind of an outline is good for me.

18 September 2014

On this 100th anniversary of the Great War
(1914-1918), I found myself reading the first book in a trilogy called ThePassing Bellsby Phillip Rock. (First publishing in 1978.)

Set in both England and France this story opens
during the summer of 1914 when the rumblings of the war to come is evident.Nevertheless, Anthony Greville, 9th Earl of
Stanmore and his family continue on with their privileged lives at Abingdon
Pryor.Alexandra Greville is embarking
on her debutante season and her brother Charles is hopelessly in love with Lydia
Foxe, the untitled daughter of an influential businessman. Martin Rilke, a cousin, arrives from America
with plans to spend the summer touring England.Little do they know that the very fabric of their lives is about to
change forever helped along when many of their servants leave to serve at the
front.

This is a moving story with fictional characters interwoven
with historical personages and events.The
reader is taken from the English manor house into the trenches in France to
witness the depredation and misery endured by those who fought.So many brave young men who went “over the
top” perhaps to die minutes later, mowed down by machine gun fire as they ran toward
the enemy through the mud encrusted landscape.Over 16 million died - 20 million were wounded.A whole generation lost.

Phillip Rock (1927-2004) was born in Hollywood,
California.He spent his younger years
in England with his family until the blitz of 1940.His adult years were spent in Los Angles.

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About Me

Mystery writer and author of The Celtic Dagger, Murder At The Rocks,Once Upon A Lie, Lane's End, Deadly Investment, Poisoned Palette and The Fourth String, all part of the Fitzjohn Mystery Series.I live in Australia, am an avid reader, love the theatre, travelling, photography and delving into my family's genealogy.